Taner Spreads a Rumor that Lukas Stole the Computers

Taner’s rumor that Lukas stole the school computers transforms a suspicious encounter at a computer shop into a story circulating among students. When Momo tells Lukas that Taner has been naming him, the accusation collides with the official investigation and with Lukas’s efforts to avoid drawing attention to himself: the theft is not publicly solved, but his absence from school is already beginning to look incriminating.

The Theft and the Failed Sale

The rumor grows out of the attempted resale of computers that had recently been stolen from a school. During the burglary, Lukas, Julius, and Sanchez entered at night: Julius first displayed a lockpick, but Sanchez produced a large keyring, and the group used it to open the school gate. At the side entrance to the seventh-year corridor, Lukas worried about night staff, cameras, and alarms, but Sanchez unlocked the door before he could reconsider. Inside, they found unopened cartons of computers and monitors on high shelves. Sanchez pointed them out, and Lukas climbed a step stool to pass the equipment down to Julius and Sanchez.

The stolen equipment proved difficult to sell. At a computer shop, Lukas claimed that the three boys were twenty, but the man there connected their offer of brand-new computers to a recent theft from a school. He challenged them over the coincidence, and the attempt did not proceed as they had hoped. That encounter supplies the concrete basis for Taner’s later account: he says he saw Lukas at his uncle’s shop trying to sell computers with two others, and that one of Lukas’s companions caused trouble. The shopkeeper’s suspicion and Taner’s retelling are related, but the account does not establish that Taner witnessed the burglary itself.

The crime had already attracted attention beyond the shop. The Berliner Polizei told students that computers and monitors worth several thousand euros had been taken on Saturday night. According to nearby residents, three male figures in black hooded jackets carried the stolen goods in a shopping cart toward U-Bahnhof Zwickauer Damm. Shots had also been heard near the station, though the police had not determined whether they were connected to the burglary. Herr Schiezeth added that the new equipment had not yet been publicly announced, so, in his view, students at the school must have been involved. He promised punishment not only for those responsible but also for anyone who knew about the crime and failed to help uncover it.

How the Rumor Spreads

Momo relays the accusation in a phone call to Lukas. Before getting to it, he mentions a fight at the Wendekreis and asks whether Lukas knows Taner, identifying him as a student from the neighboring class who usually wears a muscle shirt. Momo then says Taner has been telling people that Lukas stole the computers. The claim is not presented as private suspicion: according to Momo, Taner has repeated it widely, and people have heard it.

Momo gives Lukas the source of the story as well as its reach. Taner says he encountered Lukas outside his uncle’s shop, where Lukas had come with two others to sell computers, and that one of the companions behaved suspiciously. Momo says he told Taner to keep quiet, but the story had already circulated. The account therefore passes through several hands: an attempted sale, Taner’s retelling, Momo’s unsuccessful effort to stop it, and finally the call that brings the rumor directly to Lukas.

Lukas’s Response and the Pressure to Return

Lukas reacts physically before he can answer: his breath catches, and he strikes his chest with an open hand as he tries to inhale. He asks how Taner could be telling the story everywhere, then responds evasively when Momo asks whether he went to the shop. Lukas says he had been visiting shops with a friend who wanted to get rid of an old computer. His voice breaks, and he hopes Momo will believe him. The contrast between the specificity of Taner’s account and Lukas’s deliberately vague explanation leaves the accusation unresolved in their conversation.

Momo urges Lukas to come back to school. He believes the teachers will not hear Taner’s story, but warns that continued absence, especially now, will look conspicuous. That warning lands against Lukas’s already fragile school situation: he has missed many days during the term and fears having to repeat ninth grade again. When he once arrives without his school ID, the entrance guard refuses to let him in under the school’s new entry rule. Unable to find a teacher who can vouch for him, Lukas gives up on entering and contacts Gino instead. The rumor thus reaches him within a broader pattern in which absence can be caused by exclusion, yet can also make suspicion harder to escape.

Accusation, Evidence, and Uncertainty

The school’s investigation and Taner’s rumor offer different kinds of knowledge. The police report describes what residents say they saw and what remains unknown, including whether the gunshots were related to the theft. Herr Schiezeth reasons that the students must be involved because the equipment had been kept secret before its public announcement. Taner, by contrast, supplies a recognizable link between Lukas and an attempted sale, but the evidence reported in the call is secondhand and does not itself prove who entered the school or took the computers.

That distinction makes the rumor consequential without making it a resolution. It gives Lukas’s peers a name to attach to an unsolved crime, while Momo’s warning makes clear that gossip can become dangerous through repetition even before teachers or police act on it. Lukas’s fear is sharpened by the fact that he cannot simply make himself less visible: returning to school may invite scrutiny, but staying away makes his absence stand out. The rumor turns a failed effort to move stolen goods into a public label that Lukas must navigate while the formal investigation remains open.